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Effect of the layer of anodized 7075-T6 aluminium corrosion properties

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2017 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 786 012032

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IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 786 (2017) 012032 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/786/1/012032

International Conference on Recent Trends in Physics 2016 (ICRTP2016) IOP Publishing

Journal of Physics: Conference Series 755 (2016) 011001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/755/1/011001

Effect of the layer of anodized 7075-T6 aluminium corrosion

properties

R D Montoya Z1, E Vera L1, Y Pineda T1 and M L Cedeño1

1
Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja, Colombia

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Aluminium alloys are widely used in various sectors of industry. The 7075-T6 alloy
corresponding to an Al-Zn T6, is mostly used as structural component in the aviation industry,
due to the good relationship between weight and mechanical properties. However, the negative
point of this alloys is the resistance to corrosion, which is why they need to be coated with an
anodic film. Different surface treatments, such as anodizing, are used to improve corrosion
resistance. Anodizing is an electrolytic process by which a protective layer on aluminium
known as “alumina " is formed, this is formed by the passage of an electric current in an acidic
electrolyte. This investigation presents a study of the effect of the thickness of layers of
alumina deposited by anodized method, in the corrosion resistance of 7075-T6 aluminium. This
study was performed by using in a solution of tartaric acid - sulfuric acid and an inorganic salt.
To evaluate the influence alumina layer thickness on the corrosion properties some tests were
carried out by using the electrochemical spectroscopy impedances (EIS) technique and Tafel
polarization curves. It was found that the grown of the thickness of film favourably influences
in the corrosion resistance.

1. Introduction
Aluminium alloys are widely used in different industry sectors [5-10]. The negative point of these
alloys is the corrosion resistance, whereby they need to be coated with an anodic film. Different types
of surface treatments, such as anodized, are used to improve corrosion resistance [1-11]. The anodized
is an electrolytic process, in which a protective layer of "alumina", it is generated on the surface of the
aluminium through current flow, gives the aluminium excellent anticorrosive properties.
Despite the high corrosion protection obtained by the anodizing technique, one of the main current
concerns is the great environmental effect resulting from the use of chromic acid [6,7], commonly
used as electrolyte in the realization of these coatings [2-4]. It has been known that chromium (VI)
compounds (also known as chromates) have been used for the last 60 years and are toxic and
dangerous to the ecosystem [5], in addition to causing carcinogenic problems to people who are
exposed and in contact with chromates.
For this reason, one of the challenges facing the coating industry is the production of cleaner and
less harmful products for the environment. This regard, some electrolytic baths of lower toxicity have
been investigated and capable of even improving the mechanical and corrosive properties of anodizing
coatings of aluminium alloys) [8-9]. In this work, the anodized were made using a solution of tartaric
acid - sulfuric acid and a molybdic sodium salt as the electrolytic bath and studied the effect of the
thickness of the alumina layer in corrosion resistance of the 7075-T6 aluminium alloy.

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IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 786 (2017) 012032 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/786/1/012032

2. Experimental development

2.1. Anodized process

A The specimens of 7075-T6 aluminium alloy (chemical composition showed in Table 1), with
dimensions of 40mm, 50mm and 5mm of width, long and high respectively, were subjected to a
conventional cleaning treatment, consisting of degreased with NaOH 5% to 50°C for about 3 minutes.
Subsequently, the specimens were rinse in distilled water for 2 minutes, and were pickled for 5
seconds with a solution of HCl 5% to 25°C. Then this were rinse in distilled water for 2 minutes.
In the step of anodized, the specimen was completely immersed in an electrolytic cell containing an
aqueous acidic solution composed of 0.40M sulfuric acid, 0.53M of tartaric acid and 0.25M sodium
molybdate a Temperature of 20 °C and pH between 1 and 1,2 [11] . The aluminium parts played the
role of anode, while the cathode was composed of AISI 304 stainless steel plates.
A potential difference of 14V was used and immersion times of 40, 60 and 90 minutes. After this
time the pieces were extracted and were rinse in deionized water for 3 minutes. Subsequently, were
sealed with boiling deionized water for 40 minutes and dried with a hot air stream.

2.2. Characterization of specimens

The thickness of the alumina layer was determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with a
EVO MA 10 equip operated at 20kV.
Tests of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization were
performed with a Gamry potentiostat model PC4. All tests were at room temperature, using a glass cell
in where located working electrode (aluminium alloy) with an area of 0.079 cm2 a reference electrode
of Ag/AgCl and a platinum wire as counter electrode, immersed in a solution of NaCl 3.5%|. This
solution was chosen because of simulates a marine solution, which corrodes active materials, forming
chlorides over the metal [4].

Table 1. Chemical Composition of Alloy

7075-T6.
Alloy Al Zn Cu Mg Mn
7075-T6 bal 5.1 1.152 2.163 0.037

Impedance spectroscopy test and potentiodynamic polarization were performed. An AC voltage of

10mV was use in the first case, with initial and final frequencies of 100,000Hz and 0.1Hz respectively.
On the potentiodynamic polarization test were used potentials between -250mV to 250mV with
respect to corrosion potential, scan rate of 2mV/min in anodic direction.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Thickness of the anodized layer

The thickness of the anodized layer was measured from the micrographs shown in Figure 1. It is noted
that the thickness of the alumina layer in specimen AA7075-T6 varies directly with the anodizing
time. A 40 minutes immersion time produces a thickness of 6.14μm, while times of 60 and 90 minutes
produce an increase of the oxide film of 8.4μm and 14.9μm respectively. The images of the left side of
Figure 1 correspond to the results of X-ray energy scattering spectroscopy microanalysis, EDS made
to the coating. It is observed that the layers are composed mainly of oxygen and aluminium, this
corroborates the existence of a layer of deposited alumina.

2
CCEQ IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 786 (2017) 012032 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/786/1/012032

Figure 1. SEM of anodized AA7075-TSA (a) 40 minutes, (b)

60 minutes and (c) 90 minutes.

3
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IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 786 (2017) 012032 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/786/1/012032

3.2. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS)

The results obtained in the Nyquist diagrams (Figure 2) show an increase of the diameter of the
semicircles with the increase in the thickness of the anodized layer, for thicknesses lower than 14.9μm.
It is observed that the less resistive behaviour is obtained with the aluminium free of superficial
treatment, this phenomenon is attributed to that the anodized samples contemplate a layer of alumina
that prevents the transfer of reducible species to the base metal. The behaviour of the curve of EIS for
the aluminium with an anodized thickness of 14.9μm shows a diffusion phenomenon that indicates a
gradient of the concentration of ionic charges in the interface metal-solution, which evidences the
protection or barrier of the coating w to the corrosion.
The obtained values of the resistance to the polarization of the electrode with the thickness of the
layer were of 1,610 Mohms for a coating of 14.9μm microns and values of 1.25 Mohms, 38.05 Kohms
for 8.34μm and 6.14μm respectively.

Figure 2. Nyquist for anodic layers 6.14μm, 8.34μm, 14.9μm and for the
Specimen pattern.

3.3. Potentiodynamic polarization curves (Tafel)

Figure 3 shows the potentiodynamic polarizationcurves (Tafel) of the aluminium 7075-T6 with and
without anodized exposed to a saline environment of 3.5% by weight of NaCl. It is observed that the
increase in the thickness of the anodized layer causes displacement of the cathodic zones towards the
smaller values of current, leading to the decrease of the speed of corrosion of the material. The current
major of the corrosion is reached when the aluminium is found without anodized, while when coated
with a layer of Al2O3 of 14.9μm decreases considerably. The change the corrosion potential to the
highest values indicates that aluminium tends to behave as noble with respect to the other samples.

Figure 3. Polarization curves for the anodic layers 6.14μm, 8.34μm, 14.9μm
and for the specimen pattern.

4
 CCEQ IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 786 (2017) 012032 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/786/1/012032

The Figure 4 shows the behaviour of the corrosion rate versus the thickness of the layer of
anodized.

Figure 4. Corrosion rate vs. thickness of the layer of anodized.

3.4. Equivalent circuits

Equivalent circuits are used to describe the electrochemical behaviour and to calculate the parameters
of interest such as electrolyte resistance (Rs), charge transfer resistance (Rct) and electrochemical
double layer capacitance (Cdl). In real cells the double layer capacitor, with behaves with frequency as
a constant phase element (constant phase element: CPE) and not as an ideal capacitor. The CPE
element is use in the model in place of the capacitor to compensate for non-homogeneity in the
system. The impedance of this element (ZCPE) is determined by the following equation:

ZCPE= Yo-1(iw)-n (1)

Where Yo is the constant CPE, w is the angular frequency and n is an exponent used to indicate the
heterogeneity of the roughness surface, usually is the value of the slope and is in the range of 0.5 to 1.
In order to analyse the metal/electrolyte interface in anodic layers with thickness lower than
14.9μm, a modified Randless circuit with a constant phase element was chosen, which allowed to
obtain a good fit with the experimental data. Figure 5 represents the proposed equivalent circuit.

Figure 5. Equivalent Circuit for impedance diagrams obtained for low

thicknesses to 14.9µm of the specimen of Al7075-T6.

For a thickness of 14.9μm, was chosen the equivalent circuit of Figure 6. In this the Randles circuit
is included an impedance of Warburg (W) that represents the diffusion phenomena that take place.

5
 CCEQ IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 786 (2017) 012032 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/786/1/012032

Figure 6. Equivalent Circuit for the diagrams of

impedance obtained for an equal thickness to 14.9µm of
the specimen of Al70754-T6.

4. Conclusions
It was determined that the thickness of the oxide film increases the corrosion resistance of the
aluminium. Higher thicknesses generate lower corrosion rates. The best results were obtained with a
14.9μm layer.

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